Samsung has unveiled its new 7nm Exynos 9825 mobile CPU, less than a day before the arrival of its hotly anticipated Galaxy Note 10 family of phablets.

The CPU was unveiled late on Tuesday (UK time) and is the first mobile chip from Samsung to use a more power efficient 7nm manufacturing process. To non-techies this is a big deal as it should be much less of a battery hog than its predecessor, the 8nm Exynos 9810.

The 9810’s poor power efficiency was a key reason the Exynos version of the Galaxy S10 seen in UK offered way worse battery life than the Qualcomm Snapdragon variant sold in the US.

The CPU is expected to appear in Samsung’s next Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10 Plus phablets. The two phones are scheduled to launch at the company’s Unpacked event in New York at 9pm (UK time) tonight.

Outside of the new 7nm manufacturing process the new Exynos 9825 on paper shouldn’t offer radically better performance than its predecessor.

The octa-core CPU packs a tri-cluster architecture that combines dual-core custom CPU, dual-core Cortex-A75 and quad-core Cortex-A55 clusters. It also uses the same Mali G76 GPU as the Exynos 9810 that runs in an identical MP12 configuration.

Out of the box it’ll have a 4G modem, though Samsung’s confirmed it is ready to support its Exynos 5100 5G modem.

The news follows the release of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus and MediaTek G90 mobile “gaming” CPUs. The Snapdragon 855 Plus first appeared in the Asus ROG Phone 2. Xiaomi revealed it is working on a new gaming phone running the MediaTek G90 earlier this week.

The Exynos 9810 is one of many new features expected to appear on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10. The company is also expected to debut a reworked hole-punch front camera design, wealth of new S Pen stylus features and improved 45W fast charge support.

After graduating from King’s College London, Alastair started his career covering government technology policy and cyber security at The International Business Times. He later joined Incisive Media as…

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